1949-1968

Dr. Vernon Lippard, dean of the Louisiana State University Medical School, was appointed by Florida’s Board of Control and State Board of Education in 1948 to lead a commission determining the ideal site for the state’s proposed medical and dental colleges. Legislators and medical professionals trusted Lippard as an objective, out-of-state medical authority whose professional qualifications were respected across the region.

Lippard concluded that the state’s new medical, nursing and dental schools should not be scattered across various metropolitan clinics, but rather administered centrally as an integrated division of the state’s land-grant university. The report emphasized that the new health center would greatly benefit from being in the closest possible touch with its parent institution, the University of Florida, which was already offering many of the foundational courses required for medical students.

State legislators, heavily influenced by the advocacy of Gainesville State Senator W.A. “Bill” Shands, ultimately deferred to Dr. Lippard’s objective expertise. They favored the long-term educational benefits of a consolidated, university-based teaching center over the immediate financial savings and existing infrastructure offered by the larger cities.

St. Petersburg Times | Monday, February 5, 1962

“State Pays Sum Of Dental College To Train Dentists Out Of State”

GAINESVILLE — Florida has spent $6 million since 1945 subsidizing the education of students of dentistry at out-of-state colleges. With the same amount of money, the state could have built its own dental college.

About 50 Florida residents each year study to be dentists at out-of-state schools. The state each year pays $1,500 for each student to the school at which they study. The plan began 16 years ago to encourage state students to pursue careers in dentistry.

Some 1,000 Florida dentists have been trained at out-of-state schools with $6,000 of each of their four-year tuitions paid by the state under a plan originated 16 years ago. At the present time the state invests about $75,000 a year in training dentists.

Legislation passed in 1959 designates that Florida build a dental college at the University of Florida. But the act mentions no time for this to take place nor does it appropriate any money for the construction.

Dr. Russell S. Poor, provost of the University of Florida’s J. Hillis Miller Health Center, says the state’s dental association must show some initiative if the dental college ever is to be built.

“They must approach the legislature and ask for an appropriation to study and outline a plan for building the school,” Dr. Poor said.

Florida’s dentists are becoming more interested in building a dental school for two reasons, according to Poor. First, the acceptance rate of Florida dental students is declining every year. In addition, since there is a national shortage of dentists, Poor said the out-of-state dental colleges feel Florida is draining their talent.

The University of Florida has reserved land next to the health center for a dental school, but no other plans have been made. Poor said the University of Miami is also considering a dental college.

“The health center’s teaching hospital was designed to treat the whole man,” said Dr. Poor. “By adding a dental college, we could train people in all areas of medicine and develop a team approach to health.”

Dr. Poor will address the Florida Dental Society meeting in May. Poor said he plans to discuss the problem of educating Florida dental students at the meeting. Dr. Donald Morrison Sr., chairman of the Florida Dental Society’s education committee, said the meeting plans to consider the possibility of a dental school in Florida.

The Florida Times-Union | Sunday, February 24, 1963

“Dental College for UF In 5 Years Is Endorsed” by Carolyn Dart

JACKSONVILLE — Florida dentists meeting here yesterday endorsed a plan to establish a full-fledged dental college at the University of Florida within the next five years.

Delegates to a three-day workshop sponsored by the Florida State Dental Society at the Roosevelt Hotel concluded their sessions with a vote of approval for a legislative request from the State Board of Control. The board has asked the 1963 Legislature for a $40,000 appropriation to finance an official study during the next two years of all problems involved in starting a dental school.

According to the plan, results of the study and a request for appropriations to start the school would be presented to the 1965 Legislature.

None Here Now

No dental college now exists in the state. Medical schools are located at the privately operated University of Miami and the state-supported University of Florida in Gainesville.

“The need is there,” said Dr. Reuben P. Groom of Jacksonville, president of the state dental society. “Approval for establishing a dental school at the University of Florida was unanimous at this workshop on dental manpower requirements in the state.”

“We also recommended that the school be established forthwith and promised that the dental society will cooperate fully with officials at the University of Florida in carrying out these plans,” he said.

Dr. Groom said the committee which would conduct the study would include officials of the University’s J. Hillis Miller Health Center. The group would work with the educational committee of the dental society.

$3 to $5 Million

“The dental school probably would cost between $3 and $5 million to establish,” he said. “Perhaps the first class could be enrolled in five or six years. In that case we’d have a graduating class in about ten years.”

The proposed school would be an independent college and the fifth in the University of Florida medical complex. Already established are colleges of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and health related services.

“The dental school we contemplate would be far beyond the average concept of such an institution,” Dr. Groom said. “It would emphasize preventive programs and research, attempting to prevent many present dental problems. It would have a program of post-graduate training, also.”

Has Pre-dental Course

He said the university already has an undergraduate pre-dental curriculum. With the establishment of a graduate dental college, undergraduates headed for medicine and dentistry would take the same courses leading to bachelors degrees.

“Even during their four years of dental school, students would undergo some training on regular medical wards so they and the physicians would have a mutual understanding of problems and roles,” Dr. Groom explained.

Details of training and manpower needs were discussed during each session of the workshop, which began Thursday morning. Organized by Chairman Dr. Lewis J. Marchand, it featured several dozen prominent dentists, doctors and educators.

Among the speakers were:

• Dr. J. Broward Culpepper, executive director of the Board of Control
• Dr. John C. Brauer, dean of the school of dentistry at the University of North Carolina
• Dr. S. P. Martin, provost of the J. Hillis Miller Health Center of the University of Florida
• Also appearing were:
• Dr. Paul H. Jeserich, treasurer of the American Dental Association
• Dr. Robert M. Denton, executive director of the Florida State Board of Dental Examiners
• Robert Carter, research analyst of the Florida State Board of Health
• Wylie Kilpatrick, research professor of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida college of business administration.

The Florida Times-Union | Wednesday, March 6, 1968

“Dental School will Fill a Need”

JACKSONVILLE — Action by the Florida Board of Regents opening the way to the establishment of the state’s first college of dentistry at the University of Florida’s J. Hillis Miller Health Center fills a long-felt need in the state’s educational structure.

Florida is one of the few remaining states without facilities, either public or private, for professional training in dentistry. Floridians who wish to enter the profession must go elsewhere for their training, and the people of Florida must depend on graduates of out-of-state schools to serve the needs of the state’s rapidly expanding population.

Under the plan approved by the Regents, a building expansion program will be undertaken which will double the space at the health center on the Gainesville campus, to be financed one-third by the state and two-thirds by the federal government.

Plans call for admission of 40 entering dental students by the fall of 1971, and 60 by 1975. The expansion also will permit an increase in enrollment of medical students up to 100 annually, as well as more space for the College of Health-Related Professions and the College of Nursing.

Medical education authorities estimate Florida needs at least 300 entering medical students every year to keep pace with its needs, whereas the present schools at Gainesville and the University of Miami can accommodate fewer than half that number.

There is a logical tie between this lack of facilities and the fact that the state ranks far below the national average in number of entering medical students and in the number of practicing dentists, nurses and others in health and related professions in proportion to population.

There are many excellent dental schools in the country, some of them in the Southeast. One of the best known is that at the University of Tennessee Medical Division in Memphis. But like higher educational institutions of every kind, they are feeling the pressure of enrollment demands and must sharply limit admissions from other states and regions.

Georgia already is well advanced on a program to meet the challenge, with a dentistry school at the Medical College branch of the University system due to open this fall, and work under way on the new Emory University School of Dentistry in Atlanta.

Florida can no longer afford to rely on exporting its dental school candidates and importing its dentists.